Used medical sharps pose a danger to medical professionals and others who must handle the used sharps due to the danger of being cut or pricked with the used sharps, which may be contaminated with various pathogens, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis or other infectious and/or contagious diseases. Accidental needle sticks with contaminated needles accounts for one of the most serious health risks to medical personnel, with hundreds of thousands of accidental sticks officially reported.
Because of this danger, health care regulations have mandated the safe disposal of used sharps. Hospitals and clinics use special containers dedicated to the disposal of used needles and other sharps. The primary function of these sharps containers is to provide a rigid enclosure into which used sharps are deposited, reducing the exposure of practitioners to contaminated used sharps and protecting individuals from becoming injured by an exposed used sharp. These containers provide a safe way to store used sharps during transport and disposal by industrial waste collectors. In most instances, these sharps containers are permanently attached to a surface in the room where the sharps are used.
Medical practitioners are most vulnerable to a needle stick at two critical times during patient care activities: immediately following use of sharps in a medical procedure; and during post-operative clean-up after the activity is concluded. For instance, when a needle is withdrawn following a procedure, the practitioner's attention is divided between needle/syringe disposal and continued patient care, which may not leave a hand free, or leave only one hand free, for the practitioner to properly dispose of the used needle. Accordingly, the used needle will either be handed to an assistant for disposal or simply laid down for subsequent retrieval during clean-up. Either approach requires the used needle to be handled more than once, increasing the risk of injury.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,193 to Culp discloses a portable intermediate containment device that is mounted on the practitioner so that it is always at hand during a medical procedure to receive used medical objects such as needles, syringes, scalpels, probes, swabs, and the like for safe conveyance to a permanent disposal container. The Culp device is intended for single use and does not have provision for emptying it of used sharps.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,808 to Bruno discloses a tubular holder into which used needles may be placed for secure handling until the holders and used needles contained therein are placed in a disposal container for transporting the used sharps to a suitable disposal site. The Bruno device is intended for single use and does not have provision for emptying it of used sharps.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,971,715 to Fernandes, et al. discloses a disposable container for used medical sharps, wherein the container has a transparent viewing window 16b and an auditory and/or visual alarm to indicate when the container is full and needs to be replaced. This container is not intended to be emptied into a second container and reused.
Applicant is not aware of any reusable container for temporary receipt of used sharps at the point of use and subsequent deposit of the used sharps into a second container for transport to a suitable disposal site.